Written Answers

Wednesday 5 July 2000

Scottish Executive

Asylum Seekers

Dorothy-Grace Elder (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Executive has any plans to launch an intensive education and publicity campaign to counter prejudice against refugees seeking shelter in Scotland.

Iain Gray: No.

Caledonian MacBrayne

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it sought derogation from European Commission Directives regarding state aid to Caledonian MacBrayne’s operation of ferry services and, if it did not, why it did not seek a delay such as that granted to the Greek Government for services to their island communities.

Sarah Boyack: Council Regulation (EEC No. 3577/92) of 7 December 1992 applied the principle of freedom to provide services to maritime transport within member states (maritime cabotage). The decision whether to seek a derogation was a matter for Her Majesty’s Government at that time.

Child Poverty

Mr Kenneth Gibson (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of children lived in households with an income below the poverty line as defined by the Child Poverty Action Group for each of the last five years for which figures are available, broken down by local authority area.

Ms Wendy Alexander: The information requested cannot be provided at local authority level.

  Information currently available on household income is drawn from the Households Below Average Income dataset and the Family Resources Survey which do not have sufficient sample size for Scotland to produce the required level of detail.

  The Scottish Household Survey will provide information on household income by local authority area after the first full sweep of the survey (i.e. after two years) – the results of which are not likely to be made available until summer 2001.

  Work is also underway to investigate new methodologies and to consider boosting existing samples to give better coverage for Scotland.

  At the Scotland level, the proportion of children in households with below 60% GB median income in 1997-98 was 30% (340,000 children). This represents a drop from a figure of 34% in 1996-97.

Culture

Irene McGugan (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1O-1941 by Rhona Brankin on 15 June 2000, whether the £50,000 awarded to the Scottish National Dictionary Association is a one-off payment or is a permanent increment to their annual award from the Scottish Arts Council.

Rhona Brankin: The funding has been provided specifically for the current financial year.

Dyspraxia

Mr Duncan Hamilton (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the statement by the Deputy Minister for Health and Community Care (25 May 2000, Col. 1202), whether the Deputy Minister for Children and Education referred the matter of dyspraxia to the National Special Educational Needs Advisory Forum for discussion at its meeting on 6 June 2000, and, if not, at which meeting the Minister’s referral will be discussed.

Mr Sam Galbraith: Development and training for staff working with pupils with special educational needs, including those with dyspraxia, will be an item for discussion at the SEN Advisory Forum when it meets in November.

Emergency Services

Nick Johnston (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how much increases in fuel tax have cost Fife, Tayside and Central Scotland police forces, fire brigades, and ambulance services in each of the past three years and whether the block grant paid to each of these bodies has been specifically raised to cover these costs.

Mr Jim Wallace: This information is not held centrally for any of the three services. Increases in costs are taken generally into account in financial settlements relating to these services offset by efficiency savings where these are appropriate.

Employment

Richard Lochhead (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-1652 by Henry McLeish on 11 May 2000, how many new posts are due to be created in the Department of Trade and Industry’s Oil and Gas Directorate offices in (a) Aberdeen, (b) Glasgow and (c) elsewhere; how many of these posts are brand new jobs; where any transferred jobs are being transferred from, and whether it will provide details on the nature of all these new jobs.

Henry McLeish: The precise nature of these posts is a matter for DTI.

Enterprise

Alex Fergusson (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how much financial aid was provided to each firm named in the Locate in Scotland Review 1999-2000 and what the terms under which the aid was provided were in each case.

Henry McLeish: The principal form of assistance available under the government’s regional policy is Regional Selective Assistance (RSA). Payments are released in instalments only after the achievement of capital expenditure and job creation/safeguarding milestones which are specified in the formal offer of grant assistance.

  Details of the financial assistance offered to individual companies are regarded as commercially confidential when a project is first announced. Brief details of all offers of Regional Selective Assistance of £75,000 or over are, however, published in Labour Market Trends in the quarter after the first instalment of grant is paid.

Enterprise

Alex Fergusson (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what the current trading status is of each firm named in the Locate in Scotland Annual Review 1999-2000.

Henry McLeish: As stated in the Editors Notes section of the press release issued with the Locate in Scotland Annual Review:

  "The figures for inward investment in Scotland – both from overseas and from the rest of the United Kingdom – have been collated in accordance with strictly defined criteria, and relate only to projects handled by Locate in Scotland and the Scottish Executive Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Department’s Investment Assistance Division. There will of course have been other inward investments during the year in which neither LiS nor the Scottish Executive was directly involved.

  It should be noted that the planned investment and jobs figures are those provided by the companies concerned at the time of the investment decision. A significant number of additional jobs are also created indirectly in the local economy. All project figures reported in this review are based on company announcements during the year. Projects can be deferred or even cancelled because of adverse trading conditions. In the past, we have suggested a rule of thumb that around two-thirds of all announced jobs actually come to fruition. At the request of the Select Committee on Scottish Affairs, a detailed analysis was undertaken on projects announced between April 1991 and March 1998. This showed the outturn figure to be rather higher, at 73%. The success of many of the past inward investments into Scotland is further evidenced by the fact that as much as half of our cases in recent years involved expansion and up-grading projects by existing investors".

  I am pleased to advise that I have met personally with a number of these investing companies since their original project announcement. Most are on, or indeed ahead of, target in the implementation of their project. Others have found their initial experience in Scotland so positive that they are already discussing with my officials, the possibility of expanding their project beyond the scale originally envisaged.

Environment

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what fuel costs have been incurred by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency annually since 1997.

Sarah Boyack: This is a matter for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. The information requested is not held centrally.

European Funding

Ben Wallace (North-East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what the total sum was of structural funds, listed by programme headings, allocated to Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen in the year 1998-99.

Ben Wallace (North-East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-3317 by Mr Jack McConnell on 28 December 1999, to specify the figures for any Objective 3 funding received by Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen in the last programming period and for the year 1998-99.

Mr Jack McConnell: Expenditure financed from European Structural Funds is not allocated to Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen. Nor is it possible to identify actual expenditure in those cities, partly because individual projects financed from European Structural Funds may be designed to benefit wider geographical areas than the cities. Glasgow and Dundee were included in Objective 2 Programmes for the period from 1997 to 1999 whereas Aberdeen was not an eligible area for geographically targeted Structural Fund Programmes during that period. Information systems are being put in place for the new structural fund programmes which will enable a greater degree of geographical analysis of programme expenditure but, due to the nature of the expenditure, it will remain difficult to generate consistent and meaningful analyses.

Fisheries

Elaine Thomson (Aberdeen North) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what the outcome was of its discussions with Norway on the use of square mesh panels in the nets of Scottish fishing vessels in Norwegian waters.

Mr John Home Robertson: I will be laying regulations later this week which will require the introduction of square mesh panels into the nets of Scottish fishing vessels. These panels will allow juvenile fish to escape, thus reducing discarding of undersized fish. This is one measure in a package that we are introducing aimed at rebuilding vulnerable fish stocks.

  Many Scottish fishermen fish in Norwegian waters. However, under current regulations, the use of these square mesh panels would not be permitted in the Norwegian zone. My officials and I have therefore been in close contact with our counterparts in Norway. I am happy to report that we have been able to agree that Scottish vessels with these nets will be able to fish in Norwegian waters this year.

  We will review the effectiveness of the square mesh panels later this year and we shall keep under review the scope for further conservation measures.

  Similar regulations are being made for the rest of the UK by the other Fisheries Departments.

Health

Mr Duncan Hamilton (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive to detail all medical services previously carried out by NHS staff which have been put out to tender over the last five years.

Susan Deacon: This information is not held centrally.

Health

Margaret Jamieson (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what the total expenditure has been on corrective medicines for patients who have experienced side effects from prescribed drugs in each of the last five years.

Susan Deacon: This information is not held centrally. The NHS prescription form does not record the medical diagnosis for which a medicine has been prescribed and there is no information held centrally on medicines dispensed over-the-counter without a prescription.

Health

Margaret Jamieson (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what the total expenditure has been on surgery required by patients who have experienced side effects from prescribed drugs in each of the last five years.

Susan Deacon: This information is not held centrally.

Health

Margaret Jamieson (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether a system is in place to record side effects experienced by patients from prescribed drugs.

Susan Deacon: Yes. The Yellow Card Scheme underpins drug safety monitoring in the UK. Under the scheme, doctors, pharmacists, dentists and coroners are encouraged to report any suspected adverse drug reactions to the Committee on Safety of Medicines and the Medicines Control Agency, jointly responsible for running the scheme.

Health

Kay Ullrich (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding is allocated to the chronic disease management programme in Scotland annually.

Susan Deacon: Under the chronic disease management programmes, payments are made automatically to GPs for providing agreed programmes covering asthma and diabetes. Accordingly, the system is demand led and health boards are not subject to cash limited allocations for this work. Provisional figures for the 1999-2000 financial year show that £2,975,000 was paid to GPs for providing such services.

Health

Kay Ullrich (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to review the chronic disease management programme.

Susan Deacon: None.

Health

Kay Ullrich (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to evaluate the chronic disease management programme in terms of (a) value for money and (b) effectiveness in delivering self-management for people with chronic conditions, such as asthma.

Susan Deacon: While we have no plans at this stage to introduce a formal evaluation procedure for the chronic disease management programme, we are monitoring the arrangements to ensure that they continue to be effective. The latest available information shows that 92% of all GPs in Scotland are providing a Chronic Disease Management Programme for Diabetes and 91% are providing a Chronic Disease Management Programme for Asthma.

Housing

Karen Whitefield (Airdrie and Shotts) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it proposes to include in the forthcoming Housing Bill.

Ms Wendy Alexander: I am publishing today our detailed proposals for the Housing Bill. The publication of this consultation paper, Better Homes for Scotland’s Communities , is the next stage in the process of preparing the Housing Bill. It builds on the responses from a large number of organisations and individuals to the Green Paper published in February last year, on the responses to the other discussion papers on specific issues which we issued last December, and on the regular discussions we have had with a wide range of housing interest groups over the past few months. The closing date for the consultation is 29 September 2000.

  Good housing provided well is crucial in nurturing the strong and just communities within which individuals can flourish. Our aim is for a range of good quality, secure housing options to be available in every community and the legislative proposals set out in the consultation paper are directed towards achieving this goal.

  The Bill will lay the framework for the extension of community ownership in Scotland. It will bring together the fragmented systems of the past by introducing a new single tenancy, single local housing plans, a single regulatory framework, and strategic local housing budgets. Our aim is to guarantee the highest standards all round.

  We propose to introduce a new single tenancy which will be available to tenants of all social landlords. This new tenancy will build on the provisions of the existing secure tenancy to produce the best ever package of tenants rights. As part of the new single tenancy we are modernising the right to buy, giving new powers to landlords to tackle anti-social tenants, and providing tenants with new rights of succession and consultation, to achieve a better balance between the interests of individuals, landlords and communities.

  We intend to establish a new single framework of regulation for all social landlords, including local authorities, which will promote consistently high standards of housing management across the sector. The new regulatory framework will be overseen by a new executive agency of the Scottish Executive, building on the skills and experience of Scottish Homes in this area.

  The new agency will also become responsible for regulating the way in which local authorities undertake their duties in relation to homelessness. The Homelessness Task Force has made detailed recommendations for items to be included in the Housing Bill, and the consultation document sets out our proposals for taking these forward, including provisions to strengthen local authorities’ duties towards homeless people; to create new rights for homeless people and improve existing rights, and to create new responsibilities for both registered social landlords and local authorities for housing homeless people.

  The consultation document also re-emphasises our belief that local authorities should continue to develop their strategic and enabling role in relation to housing requirements in their areas. We are therefore proposing to make them responsible for producing regular strategic housing plans which are responsive to local needs and opportunities, and to give them an increased say in the funding of housing development in their areas where they have transferred their own stock into community ownership, or where there are appropriate checks and balances in place and there is general agreement locally and on the part of registered social landlords and funders.

  These changes will be complemented by changes to Scottish Homes. We propose that the new executive agency will take on the current functions and powers of Scottish Homes, which will cease to exist in its current form. The agency will be responsible to Ministers for development funding until local authorities take over this responsibility, for monitoring the use of development funding once this responsibility has moved to local authorities and for monitoring local authorities local housing plans. In addition, the agency will continue to play a vital role in taking forward the Executive’s policies and programmes at the national, regional and community levels, by developing innovative housing solutions and promoting community regeneration.

  The consultation document details our proposals for modernising the funding arrangements for improvement and repair grants in order to better help those most in need. More generally, funding sources for the most vulnerable people in our society will be brought together to facilitate the development of an integrated policy as part of the UK-wide Supporting People project.

  Alongside other policies and programmes which we are taking forward without the need for new legislation, our proposals for the Housing Bill are a key part of our integrated approach to meeting the housing and community needs of Scotland. Taken together, these changes to the way in which housing provision is planned, funded and regulated in Scotland will provide a firm foundation for the radical improvement in the quality of housing which is our aim.

Justice

Phil Gallie (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will investigate and report on the backlog of complaints which currently exist with the Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman.

Mr Jim Wallace: The Executive already has been monitoring the workload of the office and agreed appropriate action. Information on action being taken on the backlog of cases is given in the Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman’s Annual Report 1999 (at paragraphs 2.5 to 2.7), which was published on 7 June 2000. A copy is available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 6774).

Justice

Phil Gallie (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what staffing arrangements are currently in place within the office of the Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman and whether these arrangements are adequate.

Mr Jim Wallace: The information requested is given in the Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman’s Annual Report 1999 (at paragraph 7.2), which was published on 7 June 2000. A copy is available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 6774). The staffing complement of the office was increased last July with the appointment of an additional complaint investigator. The Ombudsman’s hours are to increase from three days a week to four days per week from 1 July 2000. I am content that these staffing arrangements are adequate in present circumstances.

NHS Funding

Mr Kenneth Gibson (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much money Greater Glasgow Health Board transferred from capital to revenue budgets in each year from 1994-95 to 1999-2000 inclusive and what the mechanism was for carrying out such transfers.

Susan Deacon: The resources transferred from capital to revenue budgets in the Greater Glasgow Health Board area between 1994-95 and 1999-2000 are shown in the following table:

  


1994-95
£000


1995-96
£000


1996-97
£000


1997-98
£000


1998-99
£000


1999-2000
£000




Nil


1,684


6,478


3,287


3,659


6,423




  Individual NHS Trusts are required to seek permission from The Scottish Executive to transfer resources from capital to revenue.

  From 2000-01 onwards, all capital funds must be spent on capital items.

Nursing

Shona Robison (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-7671 by Susan Deacon on 20 June 2000, how many nurses who graduated from the University of Dundee of Nursing and Midwifery in spring 2000 were employed in the NHSiS.

Susan Deacon: This information is not held centrally.

Nursing

Shona Robison (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-7671 by Susan Deacon on 20 June 2000, how many graduates of the University of Dundee School of Nursing and Midwifery have been employed by Tayside University Hospitals NHS Trust and the Tayside Primary Care NHS Trust and the predecessor trusts, for each year since 1995.

Susan Deacon: This is a matter for Dundee University and the Tayside NHS Trusts. The information is not held centrally.

Prison Service

Phil Gallie (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish the Annual Report and Accounts of the Scottish Prison Service.

Angus MacKay: I have asked Mr Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

  The Annual Report and Accounts of the Scottish Prison Service for 1999-2000 will be published in July.

Roads

Mr Kenneth Gibson (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether engineers can fulfil public expectations in relation to the upkeep of the road network given current road maintenance levels and funding methods and, if so, why its assessment of the situation differs from that of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

Sarah Boyack: The assessment published for the Institution of Civil Engineers relates to local roads in England, Scotland and Wales. Local roads are maintained by councils as local roads authorities. It is entirely a matter for each Scottish council to decide the priority to be given to this work and allocate resources accordingly.

  I have made it clear that the maintenance of the Scottish trunk road network and the reversal of past underfunding was a clear priority of the Scottish Executive. The condition of the trunk road network is being preserved as a result of the significant extra funds that have been allocated.

Smoking

Pauline McNeill (Glasgow Kelvin) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is undertaking any initiatives on nicotine replacement therapy.

Susan Deacon: In line with the measures in Smoking Kills , health boards were issued in April 1999 with guidance about extending and developing NHS efforts to help people stop smoking. One of the measures included the provision of one week’s free nicotine replacement therapy for those smokers least able to afford to buy the products.

  Health boards are investing an additional £1 million per annum over the period 1999-2000 to 2001-02 on smoking cessation services.

Smoking

Pauline McNeill (Glasgow Kelvin) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any evidence on the effectiveness of nicotine replacement therapy in (a) Scotland and (b) Glasgow.

Susan Deacon: The Scottish Executive is not aware of any trials in Scotland related to the effectiveness of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). However, I am aware that there have been over 90 randomised controlled trials related to various forms of NRT undertaken elsewhere. I understand that they have found that NRT is effective in aiding smoking cessation.

  Guidance was issued to health boards in April 1999 on extending and developing NHS’ efforts to help people stop smoking. The Scottish Executive has allocated an additional £1 million per annum over the period 1999-2000 to 2001-02 on smoking cessation services. Health boards are required to monitor and evaluate the success of their smoking cessation initiatives including the use of NRT.

Teachers

Mr Kenneth Gibson (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will be possible for local authorities to implement the McCrone recommendations if it does not meet the costs centrally and, if so, why its assessment differs from that of CoSLA.

Mr Sam Galbraith: Full consideration is being given to the recommendations. When I established the committee I indicated that I would undertake consultation with the relevant parties before decisions were made on implementation. Funding decisions will be based on the outcome of implementation discussions.

Transport

Mr Adam Ingram (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to make representations to Her Majesty’s Government to ensure that fines raised from motoring offences committed within each local authority area are retained by that local authority to help finance and develop the local transport network.

Mr Jim Wallace: Road traffic matters and related statutory offences are reserved under the Scotland Act 1998. Fines imposed for road traffic offences are therefore remitted to the Consolidated Fund. When offences are decriminalised and fines are replaced with penalty changes (as has happened recently with parking offences in Edinburgh and Glasgow) the local authority may keep the income to maintain the relevant enforcement system and to improve parking facilities and also, if resources are still available, for transport matters generally. The Scottish Executive has no plans to make representations to the Government on this issue.